I909-] ATLANTIC FISHERIES QUESTION. 327 



Henry Wheaton, an American, says that all treaties are not ter- 

 minated by war.^^ 



Englishmen, too, holding Government positions, have thought 

 that not all treaties were abrogated by war. Thus in February, 

 1765, Sir James Marriott, the advocate-general, held that the treaty 

 of neutrality of 1686 between Great Britain and France was " a sub- 

 sisting treaty, not only because it is revived, by a strong implication 

 of words and facts but for that it may be understood to subsist be- 

 cause it never was abrogated."-" And speaking in the House of 

 Commons in 1783, Charles James Fox gave it as his opinion that all 

 treaties were not ended by a subsequent war between the contracting 

 nations. ^^ 



From 1815 to 1818 Great Britain continued to maintain, in spite 

 of the third article of the Treaty of 1783, that American fishermen 

 had no right to fish in British territorial waters; and during those 

 years British government vessels seized numerous American ves- 

 sels found fishing in British waters. These seizures and the conse- 

 quent partial stoppage of the fishing rights of the American fisher- 

 men created much bad feeling. 



In order to avoid this continual cause of friction betweeh the 

 American republic and the British empire, which kept alive and 

 inflamed the bad feelings between the peoples of the two nations, 

 the two governments agreed on October 20, 1818, on a convention 

 to settle the fishery controversy on the principle of mutual con- 

 ' cessions. This convention was negotiated for the United States by 

 Albert Gallatin and Richard Rush, and for great Britain by Fred- 

 erick J. Robinson and Henry Soylburn. The fishing rights of Amer- 

 icans in the British territorial waters were defined in Article one 

 that read as follows :^^ 



Article I. Whereas differences have arisen respecting the liberty claimed 

 by the United States for the inhabitants thereof, to take, dry, and cure fish 



'^ Henry Wheaton, " Elements of International Law," eighth edition, edited 

 by Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Boston, 1866, p. 340. 



^ George Chalmers, " Opinions of Eminent Lawyers, on Various Points of 

 English Jurisprudence, Chiefly Concerning the Colonies, Fisheries and Com- 

 merce of Great Britain," London, 1814, Vol. II., p. 355. 



^Hansard, "Parliamentary Debates," Vol. XVIIL, London, 1814, p. 1147. 



^ " Treaties and Conventions concluded between the United States of 

 America and other Powers since July 4, 1776," Washington, 1889, p. 415. 



